The European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development has presented new proposals on the regulation of financial assistance to European fruit and vegetable producer organisations (POs).
As reported on the agroalimentarenews.com website, the European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos joined DG Agri officials in Brussels yesterday at a meeting with the EC Advisory Group on Fruit and Vegetables, which brings together producers, manufacturers, traders and other interested parties from across the fresh produce industry.
The advisory committee had earlier called on Mr Ciolos to reinforce efforts to increase consumption of fresh produce in the European Union, while at the same time taking 'appropriate action' to move the fruit and vegetable sector forward based on strong EU-based production and industry, a strong trade sector and greater efficiency and transparency within the supply chain.
According to reports, the new proposals outline revisions to PO funding which are part of overall reforms to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) due to be implemented after 2013, although exceptions are expected to be made for fresh produce assistance programmes already in place before then.
'The proposal did not obtain a majority in favour, but it did receive a positive vote from Italy,' revealed Roger White, spokesman for Mr Ciolos, adding: 'The Commission intends to approve such a decision.'
The new format is expected to define certain production processes as 'primary processing', introducing new coefficients designed to help calculate the appropriate level of assistance for individual product categories.
The next round of CAP reform, due to coincide with a new post-2013 EU budget currently being thrashed out in Brussels, is likely to involve a reduction in the size of the CAP budget, the phase-out or reform of the Single Farm Payment for direct income support to farmers and the strengthening of targeted payments for public goods, in theory rewarding farmers for services such as environmental stewardship.
In a document seen by Eurofruit Magazine and presented to DG Agri by the advisory group, industry members insisted the current market situation required a strong pillar 1 (production support) to remain part of the CAP post-2013 in order to support the fruit and vegetable sector.
'Otherwise, the security of supply could be at risk in the EU and this would undermine more than 40 years of the CAP ensuring stable supply and fair prices for consumers,' the group stated.
Earlier this month, the European Commission approved 19 programmes in 14 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom) to provide information on and to promote agricultural products in the EU.
The total budget of the programmes running between one and three years is €60.6m, of which the EU will contribute €30.3m (50 per cent).
The selected programmes cover fruit and vegetables, as well as meat, dairy products, honey, flowers, fibre flax, PDO, PGI and TSG and organic products.
'European Union farm products are unique in their quality and diversity” said Mr Ciolos, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. “In an open global market, merely producing excellent food and drink is not enough. We need to increase our efforts to explain to consumers the standards and the quality of what EU agriculture puts on the table. EU programmes of this sort can really help our producers in an increasingly competitive world.'
